Law & Politics

Tonight on Lawmakers, a bill that would allow Georgia’s Governor to appoint the Commissioners of Labor, Insurance and Agriculture as well as the State School Superintendent passes out of committee; an amendment aimed to thwart federal healthcare legislation fails to pass the Senate; a bill that intends to capture unreported taxes at point of sale from business owners passes the House; and our leadership series of interviews continues with Senate President Pro Tem Tommie Williams. All that and more tonight.

Lawmakers will not be seen on GPB tonight, Wednesday, March 17, at 7 pm due to special coverage of the Georgia Tech Inventure prize. You can watch Lawmakers live at 7 pm on GPB Knowledge, which is available to most cable customers and on digital tuners at point 3 of your dial. For example, 8.3 in Atlanta or 20.3 in Augusta. Or, you can watch Lawmakers on GPB at 10:30 pm. Those are special airtimes for tonight only. 7 pm on GPB Knowledge and 10:30 pm on GPB.

Tonight on Lawmakers, Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Hunstein delivers her first State of the Judiciary Address and warns that further budget cuts could cause the State to lose the rule of law; the Senate passes a bill to allow local government-sanctioned racing on closed roads and the House bans euthanasia for animals administered by gas chamber. All that and more tonight.

On Tuesday, March 16, Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein (pictured left) will deliver her first State of the Judiciary Address to a special joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate at 11 AM. Justice Hunstein was appointed to the Supreme Court in November 1992 by then Governor Zell Miller. She is the second woman in history to serve as a permanent member of the Court. It is expected that her remarks will address the current budget situation in Georgia's courts. GPB will broadcast LIVE the State of the Judiciary address on GPB Knowledge. GPB Knowledge is available to most cable customers and those with digital television receivers at point 3 of your local GPB transmitter. For example, 20.3 in Augusta or 8.3 in Atlanta. The State of the Judiciary: A Lawmakers Special Edition will also be streamed live online at www.gpb.org.

Complete coverage of the State of the Judiciary address can also be found on our regular Lawmakers broadcast, Tuesday night at 7 PM on GPB-TV.

The Georgia General Assembly will be in recess tomorrow and Monday. The legislature reconvenes on Tuesday, March 16 for the 25th Legislative Day of the 2010 session. Join Lawmakers when we return Tuesday night at 7 PM for all the latest from under the gold dome.

If you've been enjoying our Lawmakers Flashback series and our Leadership series of interviews, check out the new video players on your Lawmakers website!

Tonight on Lawmakers, Governor Sonny Perdue abandons the so-called “bed tax” proposition to fund the Medicaid shortfall, opting instead to propose decreasing Medicaid reimbursements by 10.25%; the Senate passes legislation aimed at establishing statewide standards for property tax assessments and appeals; and it’s the end of another legislative week, time to check in with Tom Crawford of The Georgia Report.

Tonight on Lawmakers, water stewardship and conservation bills pass both the House and the Senate; the Senate Transportation committee talks about the transportation special local option sales tax and MARTA funding issues; Senator Mitch Seabaugh proposes eliminating 19 Superior Court judge positions in the interest of the State budget; and a bill that makes it a crime to solicit an abortion based on the race or gender of the fetus passes out of committee.

The House and Senate today adopted House Resolution 1514 which sets the following schedule for the Georgia General Assembly:

Wednesday, March 10 LEGISLATIVE DAY 23
Thursday, March 11 LEGISLATIVE DAY 24
Friday, March 12 IN ADJOURNMENT

Monday, March 15 IN ADJOURNMENT
Tuesday, March 16 LEGISLATIVE DAY 25
Wednesday, March 17 LEGISLATIVE DAY 26
Thursday, March 18 LEGISLATIVE DAY 27
Friday, March 19 IN ADJOURNMENT

Monday, March 22 LEGISLATIVE DAY 28
Tuesday, March 23 LEGISLATIVE DAY 29
Wednesday, March 24 IN ADJOURNMENT
Thursday, March 25 LEGISLATIVE DAY 30 (Crossover Day)
Friday, March 26 IN ADJOURNMENT

Monday, March 29 LEGISLATIVE DAY 31

Remember to tune into GPB at 7 PM every night the Georgia General Assembly is in session for Lawmakers.

Tonight on Lawmakers, a food safety measure that would make it a felony to knowingly ship tainted food products to consumers passes the House; proposals to limit the terms of Department of Transportation Board Members are heard in House and Senate Committees; and our leadership series of interviews continues with House Democratic Leader DuBose Porter. All that and more.

Tonight on Lawmakers, February revenue figures are announced, and the continued decline is likely to mean more budget cuts; House and Senate leaders look to fee increases to help shore up the State’s budget; a new tax intended to pay for a new domed stadium in Atlanta passes the House; and we check in with Tom Crawford of The Georgia Report to catch up on what took place at the Capitol during the two week recess.

Governor Sonny Perdue has just released the much anticipated (and somewhat feared) February revenue figures. The net revenue collections for the month of February 2010 (FY 2010) totaled $567,251,000 compared to $629,448,000 for February 2009 (FY09), a decrease of $62,197,000 or 9.9 percent. The percentage decrease year-to-date for FY10 compared to FY09 is 12.7 percent.

This announcement is likely to create a need for legislators to make even more adjustments to the FY 2010 and FY 2011 budgets. For the latest legislative news tune in to Lawmakers tonight at 7 PM.

After a two week recess, the Georgia General Assembly reconvenes on Monday, March 8 for the 21st Legislative Day of the 2010 session. Join Lawmakers when we return Monday night at 7 PM for all the latest from under the gold dome. Governor Sonny Perdue is expected to release the complete February revenue figures and those numbers will be crucial as the legislature continues to work on the FY 2010 Amended Budget and the FY 2011 General Budget.

If you've been enjoying our Lawmakers Flashback series and our Leadership series of interviews, check out the new video players on your Lawmakers website!

Tonight on Lawmakers, amid worries of falling State revenues, the Senate passes their version of the FY 2010 Amended Budget; the House and Senate agree to take a two week recess to continue to work on both budgets- the FY 2010 Amended and FY 2011 General; a coalition of legislators who think Georgia’s working families are being overlooked in the budget process speak out; and it’s the end of another legislative week- that means it’s time to check in with Tom Crawford of The Georgia Report.

The Georgia General Assembly today adopted Senate Resolution 1120 which sets the following schedule for the legislature:

Monday, February 22 in recess
Tuesday, February 23 in recess
Wednesday, February 24 in recess
Thursday, February 25 in recess
Friday, February 26 in recess

Monday, March 1 in recess
Tuesday, March 2 in recess
Wednesday, March 3 in recess
Thursday, March 4 in recess
Friday, March 5 in recess

Monday, March 8 LEGISLATIVE DAY 21
Tuesday, March 9 LEGISLATIVE DAY 22
Wednesday, March 10 LEGISLATIVE DAY 23
Thursday, March 11 LEGISLATIVE DAY 24
Friday, March 12 in recess

Monday, March 15 LEGISLATIVE DAY 25

Tonight on Lawmakers, the Senate passes legislation to prevent fraudulent insurance discounts; a bill to allow private ownership of public drinking water sources passes the Senate Natural Resources and Environment Committee; and an in-depth interview with budget policy thinkers Alan Essig of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute and Kelly McCutchen of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

So, you might be wondering where 2009 Lawmakers co-Anchor David Zelski is and where Nwandi Lawson has gone this week... and we're happy to tell you!

First, a little bit about David. David Zelski has been a part of the Lawmakers team for ten seasons- and we hope he'll return for a future legislative session. In 2000, David was one of a promising group of Lawmakers interns. As you may be aware, David become a reporter in the 2001 session and continued as part of the award winning Lawmakers reporting team until the retirement of Gerald Bryant after the 2006 season of Lawmakers. David became a Lawmakers co-Anchor in 2007. David joined GPB in 2001 as a full-time staff producer and reporter. He's a native Georgian, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a minor in Broadcasting and Cinema Studies. (Go Vols!) If you're a GPB fan, you may also know that David has been a host of the Georgia Traveler series since 2006 and in the fall of 2009, he assumed the mantle of Executive Producer of GPB's popular travel and tourism show. His commitments to Georgia Traveler as the Executive Producer, Host, Writer, Segment Producer and Segment Editor are consuming all his time these days. We miss him terribly but know that we can always catch him in the next great episode of Georgia Traveler, Fridays at 9 PM, Saturdays at 7 PM and Wednesdays at 7:30 PM.

Nwandi Lawson's absence from the Lawmakers program will be much shorter- thank goodness! Nwandi and her family had a tremendous opportunity to travel to Israel this week and next and the trip had been in the works for close to a year. Nwandi will return as co-Host of Lawmakers on Tuesday, March 2 for Legislative Day 24. The Emmy Award-winning Nwandi Lawson is currently fulfilling her eleventh season on Lawmakers and her seventh as the show’s co-anchor. Her work for Georgia Public Broadcasting includes reporting for Georgia Business Report, producing the Georgia Music Hall of Fame Awards from 1999 through 2005, and serving as coordinating producer for Irasshai, an award-winning Japanese language series. Nwandi is a magna cum laude graduate of Howard University. Again, you'll see Nwandi on Lawmakers again on March 2!

On Wednesday, February 24, Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein (pictured left) will deliver her first State of the Judiciary Address to a special joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate at 11 AM. Justice Hunstein was appointed to the Supreme Court in November 1992 by then Governor Zell Miller. She is the second woman in history to serve as a permanent member of the Court. It is expected that her remarks will address the current budget situation in Georgia's courts. GPB will broadcast LIVE the State of the Judiciary address on GPB Knowledge. GPB Knowledge is available to most cable customers and those with digital television receivers at point 3 of your local GPB transmitter. For example, 20.3 in Augusta or 8.3 in Atlanta. The State of the Judiciary: A Lawmakers Special Edition will also be streamed live online at www.gpb.org.

Tonight on Lawmakers, the 2010 Amended Budget passes the Senate Appropriations Committee; Legislation that could bring more federal stimulus dollars to the State passes the House Transportation Committee; our leadership series of interviews continues with House Majority Leader Jerry Keen; and a bill that would provide oversight to the Georgia Lottery Corporation passes the Senate Higher Education Committee.

Lawmakers will not be seen Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday because the Georgia General Assembly will be in recess. We'll return with all the latest from under the gold dome on Tuesday, February 16 for Legislative Day 18.

Coming up next week, we'll have an in-depth budget interview on Wednesday, February 17 with Alan Essig (pictured left) of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute and Kelly McCutchen of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. Lawmakers' Susan Hoffman will be sitting down with these two budget thought leaders to get their take on the FY 2010 Amended Budget which passed the House on February 11 as well as the FY 2011 General Budget which is currently under consideration in the House Appropriations Committee. That interview will be a part of the Lawmakers broadcast at 7 PM on Wednesday, February 17.

On Thursday, February 18, Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein (pictured right) will deliver her first State of the Judiciary Address to a special joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate at 11 AM. Justice Hunstein was appointed to the Supreme Court in November 1992 by then Governor Zell Miller. She is the second woman in history to serve as a permanent member of the Court. It is expected that her remarks will address the current budget situation in Georgia's courts. GPB will broadcast LIVE the State of the Judiciary address on GPB Knowledge. GPB Knowledge is available to most cable customers and those with digital television receivers at point 3 of your local GPB transmitter. For example, 20.3 in Augusta or 8.3 in Atlanta. The State of the Judiciary: A Lawmakers Special Edition will also be streamed live online at www.gpb.org.

As a reminder, here's the schedule of the legislature as established in House Resolution 1262:

Friday, February 12 through Monday, February 15. . . . in adjournment
Tuesday, February 16.. . . . . . . in session for legislative day 18
Wednesday, February 17. . . . . in session for legislative day 19
Thursday, February 18. . . . . . .in session for legislative day 20
Friday, February 19 through Monday, February 22. . . . in adjournment
Tuesday, February 23.. . . . . . . in session for legislative day 21
Wednesday, February 24. . . . . in session for legislative day 22
Thursday, February 25 . . . . . . in session for legislative day 23
Friday, February 26 through Monday, March 1. . . . . . . in adjournment
Tuesday, March 2. . . . . . . . . . . .in session for legislative day 24

We hope you'll tune in when Lawmakers returns on Tuesday!

Tonight on Lawmakers, the 2010 Amended Budget passes the House; Governor Sonny Perdue, Lt. Governor Casey Cagle and House Speaker David Ralston present a unified transportation plan calling for voters to decide on sales tax increases in the State’s 12 transportation regions; our leadership series of interviews continues with Senate Democratic Leader Robert Brown; and it’s the end of another legislative week- that means it’s time to check in with Tom Crawford of the Georgia Report.